Immortal Phoenix and other stories
by elizapi
Summary: A selection of partial works that I will probably never finish. Will contain lots of incomplete story lines based on the original work of JK Rowling. Will be lots of time-travel. All canon pairings. No original characters or slash.
1. Immortal Phoenix

**AN: **This is not a story I plan to continue. I may add more at a later time, but instead this "story" will be a collection of partial stories. I am willing to let anyone else continue writing them on the condition they are kept at T or below, no slash, no lemons, no self-inserts. Keep it canon. And I am sent a link so I can read it too. I'd be willing to beta anyone who wants to continue one of my ideas. Thank you.

**Disclaimer: I do not have either an J or an R anywhere in my legal name, therefore I could not possibly be JKR. I own nothing of value. I am merely creating a plethora of "what-ifs" in her world.**

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><p><strong>- - - - -A Surprise Visit - - - - -<strong>

**Summary**: Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley have disappeared. Harry's not going to make it to his trial for underage magi because he disappeared from the Dursley's at the same time little Ginny Weasley disappeared from the dinner table in a flash of light. And now Dumbledore has called a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, not to discuss finding the two missing teens. No, he deems it important to tell the Order about staffing changes at Hogwarts!

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><p>Dumbledore stood at one of the long, dingy dining table in the gloomy kitchen of headquarters. The Weasley boys and Miss Granger were all sitting around with a look of confusion on their faces. Mrs. Weasley had been most upset when he stated their presence would be needed as they knew the missing teens best. Albus knew his announcement about the purpose of this meeting would upset several people, and he was now standing back listening to Molly and Sirius yelling at him about needing to find the children. Severus was standing with his back to the corner with a perpetual scowl in place, most likely upset at the extra work Harry seems to be creating and his so-called "attention-seeking" ways. Albus looked to his right, his old friend Moody was mumbling something about not being vigilant, and how they should have place three more guards at Privet drive, one of them in poor Harry's room. To Albus' left were two others who were looking on in amusement at the people who refused to allow Albus to finish speaking on the day's agenda.<p>

Finally, Severus stepped out of the shadows, "ENOUGH" he yelled in a voice that had brought even NEWT level students to their knees, quivering in fear. "Let the Headmaster finish, so I may get back to more important matters."

"Thank you Severus." The headmaster surveyed the room, a little half smirk playing on his lips, the twinkle in his eyes extra bright, as though the whole room was about to on the receiving end of a prank worthy of the reputation of the Marauders. "I called this meeting, to speak about the staffing changes at Hogwarts. Three days ago, Minister Fudge informed me that if I could not find a defense professor by the August 1st, he would find one for me. He insinuated that his choice of professor would be his Senior Undersecretary, Madam Delores Umbridge, who rather unfortunately, I do not find to be adequately skilled to teach defense. She barely passed her NEWT, and has been working a desk job in the bureaucracy ever since. She is also extremely fond of initiating laws into the Wizengamot that would leave all those who are not of "pure wizarding blood" in prison or worse. As of July 31st, I have found a new defense professor, on the condition that Binns is replaced with the new defense professor's wife as history professor. I daresay Madam Flamel is well and thoroughly capable of teaching the class, seeing as she has lived through so much of it. Nicholas holds a mastery in defense as well as alchemy, and actually taught me much of what I used in my fight against Grindewald."

Dumbledore made to sit down, as if finished, when he stopped, partway back down to his seat, and said, "Oh, and a search party is not necessary for Mr. Potter and Ms. Weasley, seeing as Nicholas informed me some months ago that they would be taking the two teens for training. Lady Flamel was quite insistent that Mrs. Weasley not be informed, because she would refuse, however Arthur did give his permission for Miss Weasley to be trained, though admittedly he did not know when or how she would be leaving for this training." Dumbledore sat down and pulled out a bag of lemon drops, offered one to Perenelle Flamel, who took it. Both sat merrily sucking on lemon drops while Molly Weasley began to rant about not knowing where her baby was, and if they were here, then who was watching the children.

Nicholas Flamel looked around the room, shook his head at the antics of both his wife and former student. "I hate to ruin Albus' fun, but I really must. Molly, Sirius, Remus, I will speak with the three of you and with Arthur this evening about the training your children are undergoing. I realize this is difficult for you, but I can guarantee you they are perfectly safe, and you will speak with them this evening."

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><p>Arthur and Molly Weasley, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, and the three bachelors Albus, Remus, and Sirius, sat down in the library after dinner that evening. Albus put up several privacy wards. "Really Albus, is that the best you can do? I know for a fact that those Weasley twins can get through that ward." Nicholas stood up to put another ward in place; the whole room seemed to flash in fire for a moment, though nothing was different after it faded away.<p>

"Now, the reason we are here is quite a complex matter. I suppose I should start with where the two teenagers are, I will then cover why and how." Nicholas' words left everyone but his wife and Albus looking even more confused. "Harry Potter and Ginerva Weasley are not being trained by us, they are being trained by the same man who trained Perenelle and I." Nicholas stopped to let his words seek in for a moment.

Remus seemed to be the first to grasp the reality of the situation. "Master Flamel, according to everything I have read, you and your wife are in your seventh centuries of life. Are you trying to say you sent Harry and Ginny back in time six centuries? Seven centuries? How are they going to get back? It was proven, by you I believe that time travel forward in time is impossible, while jumping back works, you have to live through each moment! How do you suppose then to get them back here where they belong?" Remus and Arthur looked bewildered, with a hint of anger seething behind their eyes, while Sirius and Molly jumped up and began shouting at Nicholas for his reckless endangerment of children. Molly suddenly sat back down and began sobbing, "I'mm n-never g-going t-t-to see my ba-bay again!"

Sirius collapsed into his chair, looking white as a ghost when he heard Molly's proclamation. "They'll be back won't they, they've got to, the stone, the Philosopher's Stone, that's what you're famous for isn't it, please tell me, you use it to get them back here!"

"Calm down please, we don't mean to cause you distress Mrs. Weasley," Perenelle Flamel spoke quietly, laying a hand on Molly's shoulder. "Let my husband finish, we promised you would speak with them, and you shall. But let Nicholas finish his explanation. He's spent years perfecting this speech." Molly took the handkerchief proffered by the new Hogwarts history professor, "of course, of course, please, just let me see my baby!"

"Yes, well. Remus, you were only partially correct in your statements about my history and accomplishments. You see, while "Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel" have been around for just under seven centuries and whose greatest achievement is considered to be the Philosopher's Stone, that's not our ages or our greatest achievement. My first mentor was a man by the name of Ambrosius, here in Britain, in what would now be called the 4th century BC. Yes, I did say we sent Harry and Ginny to him—please just listen. Ambrosius taught us the way of the Druid, and he performed our bonding." Nicholas stopped and looked lovingly at his wife of more than 2000 years.

After Ambrosius died, my wife and I decided to travel. We went to Greece; it was here that I first developed a reputation that is still remembered today. You see there was a powerful wizard in Athens who decided I should die so he could bind my wife to himself in a dark ritual. Cronos killed me, twice actually. It was then we discovered the truth of ourselves, you see, the Stone is not the source of our continued existence; rather it is our identity as phoenix. One of the few titles I have, which I never despised was that of Phoenix Lord. In truth, all phoenix were once wizards and witches who fought for the light, and who died for the light. But never before was a phoenix able to return to their human form before me. You see Cronos was not the first dark wizard to kill me."

Here he stopped, observing the room as the four adults who did not know this story hung onto his every word. "The first time I died was when I was a child, just a few months after my first birthday. Because I was not yet bonded, I had to return as a human. You see every phoenix is a bonded pair. Usually the witch and wizard bond at a young age, sometimes as early as 3 or 4 years of age. Of course the bond is not always that of husband and wife, sometimes the bond is that of siblings in all but blood. Though frequently, the bonds begin as that, and change as the younger member of the pair reaches maturity. But I was not bonded, and without the bond I could not be a phoenix. But by changing back once, I am always able to change between phoenix and human. As is my wife, she could not be permanently a bird, while I was human, so she too can take on a human form as a phoenix."

He stopped again. Waiting, to see who would make the connection first. "So, is that why you sent Ginny and Harry back, are they human phoenix as well? Is that how Harry survived that Halloween?" Arthur queried tentatively. "Remus eyed the old pair knowingly, "No, that's not it. They aren't friends with Harry and Ginny, they are Harry and Ginny, and they sent themselves back in time to preserve the timeline. I've studied my Greek mythology. The dark lord Cronos was defeated by the _lightning god_ commonly referred to as Zeus. And Harry, the muggle myths had better be wrong to the extreme. If you've treated Ginny the way Zeus supposedly treated his wife, I can guarantee Molly will find a way to kill a phoenix."

"I assure you, those stories are an exaggeration of the truth. The muggle legends have Zeus having a great many children with just about anything female he could get near. Part of being Phoenix is fidelity; he could not cheat on me, especially since we share each other's memories. Another part is we cannot have children." Ginny explained before her mother could go off on another rant, looking rather sadly at the floor. "The truth is that one of Cronos' sons got hold of some of Zeus' hair, and an old version of polyjuice potion, which would pass on the potion-induced genetics, so the children certainly appeared to be Zeus'. But we caught Hades and saw to it he would never do such a thing again. We then did what we could to support those children, since we couldn't have any ourselves. We took on several of the children as apprentices.


	2. Contract

**AN: **This is not a story I plan to continue. I may add more at a later time, but instead this "story" will be a collection of partial stories. I am willing to let anyone else continue writing them on the condition they are kept at T or below, no slash, no lemons, no self-inserts. Keep it canon. And I am sent a link so I can read it too. I'd be willing to beta anyone who wants to continue one of my ideas. Thank you.

**Disclaimer: I do not have either an J or an R anywhere in my legal name, therefore I could not possibly be JKR. I own nothing of value. I am merely creating a plethora of "what-ifs" in her world.**

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><p><strong>- - - - -A Surprise Visit - - - - -<strong>

**Summary**: Arthur Weasley must deal with the aftermath of discovering a long-forgotten marriage contract for "the next-born female Weasley." Too bad he has no idea who she's betrothed _to_.

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><p>Arthur was mad. Furious. Not at his children, though there were plently of them to be mad at, nor was it the war, in which his family had been at the very center of the conflict. The ministry also really couldn't be blamed for this travesty. True, they had found the document, hidden in some hideaway in the Records Office, but really, they had done him a favor. He shuddered to think of the consequences had it <em>not <em>been found. No, the cause of Arthur Weasley's frustration was his insane great-great-great-great-uncle. Not that the "greats" were in any way an honorific, or a comment on the man himself, merely a recollection of the number of generations since this stupidity had begun. Unless you were referring to the way the man made a mess of everything and left it to the younger generation to clean up; because uncle Richard was all that and more. Uncle Richard had taken over the family seat after his brother's death. Richard had no children, had no intention of having children, and was perfectly happy to hand control over to his nephew, the son of the head who had died. Unfortunately, Percival was six at the time—not exactly old enough to take over the finances, the politics, or the seat on the Wizengamot. So Richard took control. And immediately lost it. A consummate gambler, he lost everything, and all of a sudden, there was no big brother controlling the purse strings, limiting the amount he could gamble with. He gambled away all the gold. Then, the manor. Then the Wizengamot seat, and nothing could be done to stop him. The family could see the pattern, but were powerless to affect the head of house. And then when he couldn't pay his debts, he made a deal with the devil. As head of house, the one thing he couldn't gamble away, his control over the family magic. A well-to-do man, a high roller in the Wizengamot, _probably_, Arthur thought, _a great deal in common with Lucius Malfoy_, and an utter sleeze-bag made an offer that seemed to good to be true. He would pay all of Richard's debts, in exchange for a contract. A contract Richard didn't see any chance of ever having to make good on. A contract for the hand of the next-born female Weasley.

Richard Weasley made a contract with Antiochus Gaunt. The next girl born into the house of Weasley would be given as a wife to the head of the house of Gaunt, within one month of the document being formally presented to the head of house after the girl had completed her OWLS, the highest level of education most pure-blood girls took at that time. There were no provisions for the head already being married, or being months from death due to old age. She married, and consummated the marriage, or she would die. According to the ministry, the document still being active meant there was still a head of house, even if he doesn't go by Gaunt anymore. So now Arthur had one month to find a man that may not even know of his position as head of house Gaunt, and marry Ginny off to him, or she would die. And now Arthur had to go and tell Molly and Ginny. And Harry.

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><p>"No." Ginny's voice trembled at the idea of being separated from Harry, permanently.<p>

"Can't, there can't be. There can't be anyone left of the Gaunt family! They're all dead, they have to be." Harry exclaimed. The three Weasley's looked at him.

"You know of this family son?" Arthur questioned.

Harry stood and began to pace. "They're dead, they have to be dead. They have to be." Ginny stood in his path, stopping him, "Harry," she held his hand, "Harry, tell us what you know of this family."

He fell into a seat on the sofa, burying his face in his hands. "The last Gaunt, to go by that name, was Morfin. By all accounts he died childless. Morfin's father also had a daughter, who died giving birth to her only child." He stopped and stared at Ginny's face as he whispered, "she named him Tom."

Molly's shriek was enough to bring the rest of the family running to the living room. "You can't mean? Harry tell me it's not true!"

Ginny sat ashen-faced, holding on to Harry with all her strength.

"What's going on here?" Ron queried as he came running into the room, wand drawn, looking for whatever danger had made him mother wail.

Arthur sighed, "Sit down boys, you'd all need to know eventually." As Arthur explained the existence of the contract, he said the name Gaunt. Ron put the pieces together even faster than Harry. "No! She can't. He can't be. You're trying to claim Ginny's got to marry Voldemort's closest living relative? Unless this guy is as dark as he was, he'd never admit to being related. How are we supposed to find this guy?"

Bill spoke up, "the goblins will know, but finding out from them is not likely to be easy or cheap. Hermione, Ginny, you two should go to Hogwarts, search the records see what you can find. Harry, the goblins are much more likely to talk with a wealthy customer than they are me. You need to go get your finances straightened out, and make good for the dragon, hopefully once that's all done, you can ask them about it."

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><p>Hermione and Ginny sifted through decades worth of enrollment records before, "Ginny, I found something!" Ginny hurried over to look at the information as Hermione explained. "Three years before Morfin attended, there's a Meralynn Gaunt listed as a student, but only until Christmas of her first year. Ginny she was disowned for being sorted into Gryffindor! From what I can see, she was made a ward of the ministry and placed with…"<p>

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><p>While the girls were gaping in shock at the discovery, Harry was being given the runaround by the goblins. "Let me get this straight, you emptied the Black vaults in order to make reparations for the loss of the dragon, the damage caused, and breaking into the Lestrange vault, which I should technically been able to have access to because Lestrange broke the marriage contract by getting a daughter of the house of Black imprisoned. And I am technically the Lord of the House of Black, but safeguards the family built in means, at best I could pass it on to someone of Black blood, even though technically I'm of Black blood because of my grandmother, since I inherited through my godfather, instead of as a blood relative, I can't actually claim it, but my son could?"<p>

"That is an accurate, if verbose summarization wizard. Now, onto your Potter family inheritance. It has been too many generations since your blood claimed the name of Peverell, so you cannot claim that seat, nor can you use it or any of these other names for political gain. Now, as to this last vault and name. There is no vault. It was emptied quite some time ago. You can claim no political power through this name, but you can still make and accept contracts, and are for contractual purposes, the head of house." "Wait, how can I be the… "

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><p>Hermione's voice died out, she looked at her friend's face as she processed the possible ramifications of this discovery. "Ginny, she was placed with Harold and Erica Potter. Look at these detention records, more than 75% of her detentions were served with Jonathan Potter, and several of the teachers commented that the two did everything together. Including, Ginny, including their son Charlus, Meralynn and Jonathan were married less than 3 weeks after finishing their NEWTS, and Charlus was born 9 months 3 days later. Ginny, Harry's the head of house Gaunt, I'm sure of it."<p>

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><p>Ginny and I can, no <em>will<em> be married, in just a couple of weeks!" A great big grin broke out on Harry's face, and he missed everything else the goblin said.

While the three teens were all racing back to the Burrow at the same time; Molly was listlessly roaming about the house, dusting the same three items overs and over again. Arthur was simply staring into the fireplace when it blazed green, the girls came rushing out, just as their was a **pop** of apparition in the back garden, the girls raced back their, as the adults followed at a tired pace. Ginny ran straight into Harry's arms. Harry's grin grew even more impossibly large as he spied Ginny racing toward him. He opened his arms and caught her. He would never be separated from her again.


	3. A Surprise Visit

**AN: **This is not a story I plan to continue. I may add more at a later time, but instead this "story" will be a collection of partial stories. I am willing to let anyone else continue writing them on the condition they are kept at T or below, no slash, no lemons, no self-inserts. Keep it canon. And I am sent a link so I can read it too. I'd be willing to beta anyone who wants to continue one of my ideas. Thank you.

**Disclaimer: I do not have either an J or an R anywhere in my legal name, therefore I could not possibly be JKR. I own nothing of value. I am merely creating a plethora of "what-ifs" in her world.**

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><p><strong>- - - - -A Surprise Visit - - - - -<strong>

**Summary**: Everything was going just fine during the Halloween feast, Remus Lupin, was pleasantly surprised at how his time teaching was going. That is, until 3 strangers showed up in a swirl of light, "James?"

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><p>He could hardly believe the opportunity before him. Sitting in the Great Hall, enjoying a Halloween Feast. When he was ten he thought he would never experience this at all, and now with seven years as a student behind him, he now sat at the teacher's table, overseeing the whole hall. He tried desperately not to think about <em>that <em>Halloween, though it was impossible to do so, especially when his eyes kept being drawn back to that familiar mop of black hair at the Gryffindor table. He was so unlike his father though. Sure, they looked alike, and both were at home on a broom. But the similarities ended there. No matter how many diatribes he heard from Severus about him strutting about like his father. James was never so timid. James got into so much more trouble. Maybe it was his group of friends. There were only three. He had Hermione to be the brains of the operation, to keep them on task and out of trouble. With no Siri—with no Black being brash and loud and drowning out what she has to say. Though the youngest Weasley boy was more like Black than Peter, _Ron_ came from a good family that would teach him well. He would never be like that traitor. No. Harry was not much like his father. Minerva had lamented his lack of talent in transfiguration, and Filius his mediocrity with charms. But they had obviously never seen Harry in defense. With the right training, the cub would be well on his way to a defense mastery. He may not know many spells, but that could be put down to the poor quality of previous teachers, but he learned everything quickly and easily, and he didn't freeze up.

A swirl of light towards the center of the room caught Professor Lupin's attention. That small swirl grew, and grew; it now twisted around in a column that seemed to come down from the heavens of the starry night seen on the ceiling, down to cover the whole of the great seal in the center of the hall. Legend had it that the seal was once a ritual circle and was the point of intersection for all the powerful magic that ran through the secluded magical valley that included Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the surrounding land for miles. Professor Dumbledore had confided in him upon signing his contract to teach, that the circle was the marker for the ward stones buried deep below. It was of course in the original contract set up by Gryffindor and Ravenclaw that the information of the ward stones could never be told to one who had not signed the contract, and it could not be used to bring harm to the body, mind, magic, or reputation of the students, the school, or the castle. But now something very magical was happening with the circular seal, the column of a glittering white light had changed; it was swirling faster now, with bits of colorful streams of light interspersed throughout. There were big thick red streaks; there were thin yellow streaks that looked more like flames than pure magical energy. There were watery streaks of blue and green, grainy swirls of purple. And something that looked a bit like small lightning bolts tumbling about in the sea of light. Then the light began to recede in on itself, as it became only half the size it started, it became apparent that there was someone in the streak of light, then not one, but 2 someones.

The column of light disappeared suddenly, and three individuals stood in the circle, looking around themselves. Or rather two individuals were standing there, the obviously female red-head was carrying a boy that had the same messy black hair as the man standing next to them with wand drawn, ready, as if expecting an attack. The man. Not the child. Remus knew they were a distance away, and since it wasn't near the full moon, his sight was rather average at the moment, but he knew he had just been thinking of the man standing before him. The boy turned to the table, and the piercing green eyes captured Remus' attention, as the little one, know more than 15 months old looked straight at him and cried out "Dada!" Remus turned to the man who was still looking around, and queried, not as quietly as he meant to, "James?"

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><p>Harry watched the trio that had appeared. He knew that whatever was going on, it involved him, of course it did, bad things always happen on Halloween. He was much closer to the trio, and knew Professor Lupin was wrong, that wasn't his father. According to his photos, his parents were not as close in height as this pair. And the woman's hair was the wrong shade of red from the memory flashes he'd had. But Harry had to wonder why this professor would call out "James" not "James Potter" or "Potter" as he might have expected. The greying defense professor was too old to have been in the same year as James and Lily.<p>

No, Harry knew that this pair was not his parents. But he _did_ recognize that very Weasley shade of red, and he'd seen the flash of green in the man's eyes. Time travelers they may be, but not from the past. No, this would certainly appear to be his future self. But with Ginny? He considered the thought for a moment. She was pretty, and she was probably very nice and fun, considering her family. But he just didn't know her; she was too much a fan of the Boy-Who-Lived to care about Harry. Maybe it was just coincidence that she was there, carrying a little boy who was clearly a Potter. Maybe it was actually his son and grandson with Ron's daughter. Yeah, that was more likely.

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><p>The newly appeared adult Potter looked around, mumbling to himself, quite loudly, "Halloween by the décor, Remus is defense professor, that makes this my third year, what happened Halloween of third year? Sirius, Sirius got in the castle!" The pronouncement had the whole room startled.<p>

Professor Dumbledore stood quickly at this assertion and cast sparks from his wand to get the attention of the room. "Please, identify yourselves, and if you know anything about the whereabouts of Mr. Black, please help me find him."

"I'm Harry Potter, this is my wife, Ginny, and my godson, Teddy – Teddy."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the visitor's stumbling over the little boy's name. "And how is it your godson looks as if he could be your twin?"

"He's a metamorphmagus. Makes it rather difficult to take him out in muggle London."

"And Teddy's surname?" "Is best left unknown for the moment. Considering my younger-self's relationship with his parents."

Hermione stood up at this point, "But you can't be here, simply showing up creates all sorts of time paradoxes!"

"Normally that would be true," the woman spoke up for the first time, "but our presence here has created a parallel timeline, exactly the same until the moment we arrived. Our time line continues to exist; we simply aren't there anymore. But shouldn't we get back to the safety of the students, ridding the castle of traitorous rats and the dementors?"

"Parallel time line? Where's your evidence of that? How did you get here?" Hermione asked, scowling at the woman.

"My evidence is the for the Chief Warlock and Headmaster. Not for pretentious teenagers." The woman scowled. "I'd forgotten how bossy you used to be Hermione. I wish you could get over that sooner." A shocked Hermione flopped back onto the bench, speechless and angered at the woman's words. She turned to glare at young Ginny Weasley, apparently the current version of the adult she'd been arguing with. But seeing her older self, happily married to Harry Potter, and standing up for herself, little Ginny was not backing down anymore than her older self at Hermione's glare.

"Alright, alright, let's see," the man, older Harry, pulled out a worn piece of paper, tapped it with his wand while mumbling something no one could understand, but still left the Weasley twins and Professor Lupin gaping at the man. "Percy and Professor McGonagall need to go to the Gryffindor common room and get Ron's pet Scabbers. Sirius has convinced himself that the rat is Peter Pettigrew, and he was never exactly stable, 12 years in Azkaban haven't done him many favors. You two will need to bring the rat to the headmaster's office. I can convince Sirius that we are on his side, and he'll come peacefully, thinking he's going to be pardoned and allowed to have his godson back. Then, when he's supposedly getting his hearing, to have the rat exposed, he can be taken back into custody."

"And just how can you convince Black that you are on his side, without convincing us as well?" Professor McGonagall queried. In response, the older Harry shot out a patronus. Remus nearly fell out of his seat in shock. "That, that will convince him." He stuttered out. "Can you please explain?" The headmaster asked quietly.

"When, when we were in school, the three of them managed an illegal animagus transformation. Peter was a rat, Black a large dog, and the third was, a stag. It was also his patronus, and Black's clearly messed up in the head, he'll likely think it possible. Or else his ghost playing one last prank."

"Very well then, Minerva, Mr. Weasley, please go and get the rat. Mr. Potter, please send your message. I think your younger self, Ms. Granger, and the rest of the Weasleys should come to my office as well. Professor Lupin, please join us. Professor Snape, some veritaserum. Professor Flitwick, I shall ask you to ensure the rest of the students make it safely to bed.

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><p>"Now, we are all settled in, as we await Mr. Black and Professor McGonagall, perhaps our visitors could tell me your evidence that you are not destroying your timeline." It was phrased as a question, but all knew the headmaster's statement was anything but.<p>

The older Harry stood, and moved to the cabinet at the side of the room, "Do you still, or perhaps thats yet, keep the pensieve in here?" In answer, Dumbledore pulled it out, removed a few silvery strands and then proffered it to the man. He placed his wand to his head, and drew out a silver thread; he repeated the process half a dozen times. "This first memory is what would have happened this evening, had we not appeared." He placed his wand against a rune along the side, and a scene was displayed of the Gryffindors standing in a huddle outside their common room, as a pompous Percy pushed his way through the crowd. It continued to the horror of those not in the know, with Peeves revelation that Sirius Black had cut up the canvas in anger.

"This second memory is from the beginning of what should have been my seventh year at Hogwarts." Another ethereal image played, of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, obviously several years older, in a dark hovel of a room discussing with Professor Lupin how ministry aurors and death eaters were now interchangeable. How Voldemort was ruling from behind the scenes. The revelation of the muggleborn register. "It was bad, for awhile there, according to those that lived through both, it was much shorter, but much, much harder than the first war with Voldemort. But we survived, we began rebuilding, and then—" he cut off here, and looked towards the woman who he had called his wife. "Two weeks before our wedding, Ginny was over, decorating my place, and Teddy was staying with me, because his grandmother wasn't doing well. She lost her daughter, husband, and son-in-law in the war. Along with a sister and a two cousins. It, it was too much for her. So Teddy was with us, when, I don't even know exactly how it happened, but the house, it the wards suddenly gave out, and it came crashing in on us. We both were going for Teddy before trying to apparate out, and neither of us made it, probably for the best, at least for us." Mrs. Potter had walked over to her husband, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He stared at her blankly for a moment; he was about to begin again, when Ron opened his mouth. "Hang on now and you can get away from my sister, you said you were married, but then you said you were still a couple weeks from the wedding. Which is it?" Ron glared angrily at his future friend, while his twin brothers looked suspiciously at the older pair.

Both Ginny's put their hands on the hips and shouted "Ron!" before the older one continued, "he was about to explain that when you so rudely interrupted, Hermione was wrong, he doesn't have the emotional depth of a teaspoon, that gives him too much credit. More like a drop of sense in the desert. It's not enough to be noticed, and you're left with exactly what you had before. Nothing." Her outburst seemed to have done the trick to pull her husband out of his brooding, because as he began to speak again, she gave a smug smirk and a satisfied nod of the head.

"We didn't immediately show up here, we were… somewhere else … for a few days, perhaps it was weeks, I don't know, time didn't exactly mean much there… It's a place between, where the almost dead can meet with those truly gone, I'm not explaining it right, but basically I was being given a chance to change things, to give my younger self a better life, and to save lives. I know what is needed to destroy Voldemort permanently. Anyway, we were met by, I suppose it was Death. He gave me the option to go back in time, to change things. But he would only send two souls back. He told me to choose between the love of my life, without whom I would be useless, and my godson who had not had a chance to even live. And then she arrived." Harry spoke this with an awed smile playing at his lips. "She showed me an option that would allow us to all three come back. A magically induced marriage, combining our souls, so that Ginny and I are literally one soul. Allowing us to bring Teddy back as well.


End file.
